


Tachycardia

by nerdzeword



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Bingo, F/M, Family Dinner, first date?, hospital au, lots of drunk ranting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:09:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26227711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdzeword/pseuds/nerdzeword
Summary: Aaron was not expecting Neil to bring someone else to family dinner.Hospital AU for the Cupcake Bingo!
Relationships: Aaron Minyard & Andrew Minyard, Katelyn/Aaron Minyard, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 15
Kudos: 187
Collections: AFTG Bingo Blackout 2020 - Cupcakes, All For The Game Bingo 2020





	Tachycardia

**Author's Note:**

> Much thanks to Madison. She's a blessing.
> 
> Tachycardia: the medical term for a heart rate over 100 beats per minute.

Having a twin was the absolute worst thing that could ever have happened to Aaron, he was pretty sure. It was right up there with his mother being a drug addict and nearly flunking out of med school.

“No no no no no no no. Andrew. Why are you here? Again?”

“Neil doesn’t have a car. So I’m picking him up,” Andrew responded slowly, as if Aaron were an idiot for even asking. Aaron loathed the day he had introduced his brother to his coworker, he really did. The only good thing that had happened to him at that holiday party was the small smile he had recieved from Katelyn. Which was- well, honestly, Aaron would do just about anything for one of her smiles so it was probably worth it?

“Neil doesn’t even work on this floor. Try again asshole.”

“What? I can’t even say hello to my beloved twin while I pick up my boyfriend?”

“I’m not your beloved anything, fuck off. That goes for Neil too. Because of  _ you  _ everyone keeps coming to  _ me _ to try and keep him in line.” If anything, Andrew just looked more amused by this information. It was hard to tell with his face sometimes, but Aaron was pretty sure that was amusement. 

“I’m wounded. Really. My own brother,” Andrew said, placing a hand over his chest, but not bothering to use any inflection or even so much as change expression. 

“I hate you,” Aaron told him venomously. It said a lot about how far the two of them had come, that he knew he didn’t actually mean it. And even more importantly, that Andrew knew he didn’t mean it. 

“Hm. Oh look at the time. Later bitch.”

“Fuck off. Dinner at yours tonight?” That was another surprising outcome of the weird fallout that had taken place in their first year of college. Surprisingly, it was Andrew who was the most insistent on them keeping the regular weekly dinners that Bee had started enforcing in college. 

“Yup.” Andrew waved back at him without turning around to look at him.

This was all Neil’s fault. Aaron was usually just saying that, but this time it was true. Neil had the uncanny ability to do whatever Aaron would find the most obnoxious, at any given moment. At this moment, that just so happened to be having invited Katelyn to weekly dinner. 

The same Katelyn that Aaron had been pining over since they had shared a biology class in college, long before she became a brilliant cardiologist. The same Katelyn he had watched absolutely eviscerate Seth from the Neurology labs for trying to hit on one of the nurses while she was just trying to do her job. The same Katelyn he had only just recently even managed to _ befriend, _ because she- like just about everyone else they worked with, barring Neil and Matt- was always busy, or tired, or usually a combination thereof, and he hadn’t wanted to bother her. The same Katelyn he had felt blessed to have even received a smile from in the hallway earlier that week. 

Aaron would probably have been more thankful than irritated, were it not for the fact that he had just gotten off of a twelve hour shift, and was still in his scrubs, with his hair a disaster, because he had  _ thought _ that he was just going to his brother’s house for weekly dinner, and it would only be people who already knew he was only barely holding onto the title of ‘the functional twin.’ 

As it was though, he felt like sinking through the floor.

“I hope you don’t mind, I invited Katelyn. We’ve been trying to find a time to hang out for  _ ages,  _ but because i’m always working the night shift, it gets a bit challenging.” Aaron just blinked at him. The half empty bottle of whiskey he had stolen straight from Andrew’s hand halfway to his lips. How was he supposed to respond to that? No, now’s not a great time for our mutual friend who also just happens to probably be the love of my life to show up to family dinner?

“Sure whatever,” Andrew answered for them both and stole Aaron’s bottle back before he could remember he had never actually gotten a chance to drink from it. He scowled at his brother, but gave Neil a nod to show his agreement with Andrew’s assessment of the situation. 

It wasn’t like she hadn’t already seen Aaron like this a thousand times before at work. 

“Aaron? Why are you here?” She looked between him and Neil, then between him and Andrew.

“It was Andrew and Neil’s turn to host family dinner. You’re in luck too, Andrew actually cooked today, usually on Neil’s week we end up getting take-out.”

“...Right. How are you all related?”

“Andrew is my boyfriend,” Neil pointed at Andrew. “Aaron is his brother.”

“He’s adopted,” Andrew told her. He looked so serious that Aaron could see the confusion fill Katelyn’s eyes as they darted between them. Were it anyone else, Aaron would have gone along with the joke. But because he was head over heels in love with her, watching her struggle was starting to physically hurt him. 

Or maybe that was just Andrew kicking him.

“We should eat,” Andrew said, skillfully evading Aaron’s attempts to reclaim the bottle of whiskey. 

It was unclear as to how Andrew had convinced Katelyn to drink. It was even more unclear as to how he had convinced her to drink  _ so much _ . She was babbling away about the injustices dealt upon people of color at first. Aaron assumed she was probably an expert on the subject, given the passion she used when speaking about the subject, and the fact that she was a person of color, so he just nodded along and agreed with everything she said. 

Somehow she had moved from her ranting about statistical poverty levels and onto the crimes committed by higher education in maintaining said poverty levels. Then she had somehow ended up talking about why the number of women in STEM fields was so low and how it didn’t matter how many women joined the programs if the professors and other classmates were unwilling to treat them with basic respect and kindness. Somehow that turned into her sharing stories of the -apparently many- times she had been talked down to by someone at work or in school, and promptly put them back in their place.

“And this guy- this guy! I could not believe the audacity! His wife is in surgery, getting a  _ heart transplant  _ and he’s in the hallway trying to get my number! Like, can you believe that?” Aaron could not believe that, only because he himself had been trying to get Katelyn’s number for actual years and still had not worked up the courage to just ask her. 

“And that’s not even going into all the stuff that some of the anesthesiologists have told me. I swear if I had a dime for every time that one of them has been asked out by one of the hospital staff while they were on shift, then I would have at least enough money to take you on a date somewhere fancy. Like- I dunno what’s fancy. The Ritz? Fuck I haven’t been anywhere but the hospital in months.”

“What?” Aaron ignored his brother who was smirking in his swarmy this-would-be-crying-tears-of-mirth-if-I-were-anyone-else sort of way.

“Oh. Did you want to choose the place for our first date? That’s probably for the best actually. I don’t actually know if there is a Ritz in Chicago. Is there a Ritz in Chicago?”

Aaron had to force himself to answer calmly. “I don’t know. How does Italian sound instead?”

“Fuck. Italian sounds great. Friday then? Do you work Friday? Do  _ I  _ work Friday? What day is it anyway?” 

“Sunday.”

“Oh shit. I think I work tomorrow.” Katelyn stared mournfully at her empty glass.

“Oh. Do you need a ride home?”

“That would be lovely. Thank you.” She nodded once in the assertive way that Aaron thought he probably shouldn’t find as cute as he did. Then she stood up, and Aaron had to jump up to catch her before she fell.

Katelyn had been chattering away the entire trip, but Aaron didn’t think he could pinpoint a single thing she had spoken about. As soon as he had turned into her neighborhood she had grown quiet.

He turned off the car. “Right, okay. Um. According to the GPS, this is your house. Unless of course you gave me the wrong address. Which, would probably be fair honestly, it’s not like we know one another all that we-” Katleyn started to giggle, and Aaron broke off his rant, glad the darkness hid his flushed cheeks. 

“You’re funny. You’re so funny! And no one ever believes me!”

Aaron didn’t know how to process this information. Who would Katelyn even talk to about him? And Why? “Um. Thanks?” He responded hesitantly. She broke into another round of giggles. 

“So funny. Here. Gimme your phone. Gimme.” Aaron handed it over without a word, using the face recognition to unlock it for her. She typed away at it for a moment before handing it back. “There! So I won’t forget in the morning!” She told him brightly. 

“Um. Is that a problem you often have?” He asked carefully.

“No. But I have read enough novels to know that you never leave these things to chance,” she told him seriously. 

“...Right.” Aaron could not stop staring at her. She was so pretty, and she was in his car, in front of her house, and he was like 65% sure she had just given him her phone number.

“Hey Aaron.”

“Katelyn?”

“Would it be terribly uncouth of me to kiss you before our first date?” Aaron’s first thought was that only Katelyn would use a word like uncouth when she was drunk. The second was just a wall of white noise and that old landline phone error sound. Luckily, Katelyn didn’t even seem to notice his momentary lack of brain function, as she continued to talk. “It’s just, I’ve liked you for  _ ages.  _ Like, since college, and I feel like that’s practically forever. Do you think so?” Aaron was dying; he was pretty sure. He somehow managed to make some sort of affirmative sound, despite his lack of air, because Katelyn looked pleased and continued to talk.

“And like, we worked on that big biology project together, and I didn’t want to stab you during it, which means we’re basically soulmates. Probably. Because I hate group projects, and I  _ always  _ hate my partners. Except you! So I think that-” Aaron didn’t think his heart could handle anymore revelations, so he did what he promised himself he would never do. He cut her off.

“Katelyn.”

“-yes?”

“You can kiss me.”

“You sure it’s not uncouth?”

“Well, I won’t tell if you don’t.” She broke into giggles again. 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Tachycardia (the My Own Soul's Warning Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27461641) by [fuzzballsheltiepants](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuzzballsheltiepants/pseuds/fuzzballsheltiepants)




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